First Madden NFL 15 Connected Franchise Info Involves Two New Features

It’s not much, but it comes on the heels of EA Sports promoting Ultimate Team earlier today which had many wondering whether anything was improved upon in Franchise mode with Madden NFL 15. A retailer blurb related to Connected Franchise has appeared and notes a couple new features – the ability to develop players and a system for projecting “Confidence” levels on to players that fluctuates to affect their performance.

Interact and build your team with more control in Game Prep all-new to CFM. Want to develop your backup QB? Between matchups, spend extra time on him each week to earn training points without having to force him into the real games before he is ready. Also new in CFM is the Confidence rating system. Build your teams’ confidence through performance and front office transactions. Balance keeping player’s confidence up, to increase abilities and build player XP.

It’s evident that Connected Franchise will play a big role in potential purchase decisions for many this year and that will be examined in an article soon (Update: Check that out here). There’s likely more to these two features and more improvements that aren’t worthy of being in such a general overview of the mode but would this be enough for those who feel Franchise is the most important part of the game? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

It still makes 0 sense for them to wait this long to give us any info on CFM. We are a month away from release and the only info we have is not even from them. I would love it if their PR team granted interviews. More than I want to know about the game at this point, I just want someone to ask one of the PR people wtf was their thinking in marketing the game this year?

I wouldn’t say it makes “zero” sense, but it’s certainly a bit conventional for them. It could just be they want to save a significant announcement for some sort of extra final-month push. The thing is, almost everything about their marketing schedule this offseason has been a bit unconventional. Different dates, different approaches to blogs, somewhat different approach to ratings reveal (much better than last year, frankly on all of those fronts). Heck, there haven’t even been any Madden ads yet. They’re really being tight on their budget and they’ve pretty clearly crafted out a very specific schedule.

None of that means we will see significant CFM changes by any stretch, but I think this offseason has been unusual enough that we can’t simply say “that’s not normal” and presume with certainty what it means.

As for PR people… I’d love to talk to some too. God knows I’ve tried. I haven’t been able to get anyone on Madden’s PR to respond to me in two years. I’m not even sure if my emails arrive at this point. /tears

UnfrozenCavemanGamer

It makes zero sense to wait to market your most played feature less than a month from release in a world where preorders and digital downloads are the trend. Most people make up their mind about a game at least a couple months in advance now days. Most people have already made a decision as to if they are going to preorder this game or wait and see what user reviews are like. The only reason you would do this is if you know that is your weakest feature this year. You try to give every bit of positive information you can to get people to make up their mind to buy the game and then you hit them with “yeah, we kinda didn’t do much this year to CFM” and hope that they are already hyped enough to want to buy the game anyway.

Wolf Ezio

very nice small info but i want know more more info about CFM. i hope easports reveal full info of CFM this week later like Thursday

Roger Podacter

Man all I want is a modified Coaching Carousel [from NCAA 14] to make it’s way to Madden so I can see how a OC/DC is doing before I hire them by checking the team’s numbers. I HATE having to hire some unknown, randomly generated guy if I decide to fire my coach.. Sucks.

Taa’j

Looking forward to finding out what other small improvements are coming, its all about the fine details

Trey Warner

The last gameplay stream they showed looked very promising…The E3 demo look like it had a lot of the same problems M25 did but the version they were showcasing the other day looked much better.

Billisaac82

If only they’d combine the 07(ps2 & xbox) franchise with today’s mechanics. None of this xp bullshit.

vic

No draft classes no purchase…….maddens fake classes are absolute garbage I don’t want a 90 ovr rookie also if they did not rid the game of the scheme ratings or at least give us there true ratings along with the scheme rating is a deal breaker as well doesn’t matter how good it looks if you can’t enjoy building your team.

it is so easy to make sub par players great in connected franchise i hope the at least make an attempt to remedy this problem.

Iceman

Mr. Pastapadre, sure that will not be introduced the “imported draft class mode”, or even expect more news??

Sean Conners

there will be no real draft classes. they didnt even make the game this year as they are being sued by former college players who feel a little ripped off about their likeness and name being used for other people’s profit, and not their own. So do you really think they are gonna put real college players in the game when they arent going to compensate them? expect generated players only,,, the bigger thing for me is if they could somehow have actual “random” ratings for these classes and kill all the draft sheet cheapness.

vic

They need custom draft classes dude

max

They need to have it like the NCAA franchise used to be.. offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator. It could be the next big additoon. cant believe they havent pulled that one yet.

lonzell99

Looking for 8 Man Practice Squad (since practice was re-done). Full Coaching Staffs. Setting the teams 46 Game Day Roster. Wear & Tear Injury System. That would be a good start………………

smsixx

Nope…

That would be trying to create a simulation by adding those features you just listed…Instead they want to give you a gauntlet mode that tests your 100 yard field goal skills in hurricane winds.

BroncosAllDaWay

I heard that the coaching staff is all there but not the real coaches.. Lame

Big Roc Nasty

Give me package subs, a full coaching staff and practice squads too and I’ll be happy.

Jese Hall

Pasta can you confirm if they have an entire team that works specifically on Franchise mode in Austin Texas?

Yungin2blessed

Just fix the injury aspect of the game. It seems like almost everyone gets the same injuries, broken collar bone is the most popular injury that put people out of the season for a long time. Also when playing as a player and you injure someone the player end up back on the field right after the play he got injured and gets injured consecutively in one game and still never sit out for a couple of plays or so. Last we should have EA Gameface for our created coaches/players/ect. How does the ps3 version have Gameface on madden 25 but the PS3 doesn’t? Also we should be able to set up our own celebrations, they should be labeled as followed, For Defense: Celebration After 3rd Down, Celebration After Interception, Celebration after forced fumble, Celebration after tackle for loss, For Offense: Celebration after 1st down, Celebration after 20+ Yard Rush/YAC, Celebration after successful 3rd down. These should be personalized for your character so when playing online CFM with players everyone will have there own way of celebrating when they make big plays on certain situations.

Sean Conners

what sucks about the injuries is if the game is played, only skilled players ever get injured …no linemen (ive seen one linemen injured in a franchise game this year that was played and that was after he picked a pass and got injured on the return) and if it is simmed, linemen take it on the chin.

Jay Kavanagh

I need online Co-op franchise….pleaseeeeeee lol

MCJedi1

This is something I’ll get into in the off season after the Super Bowl. By that time all the bugs will be fixed.

Pasta, any word on when the demo will be released, and, when will it be available for pre-order on the Playstation Network?

Still waiting to see what submissions from the design-your-own-team contest actually made it into the game. Considering that they were allowing actual fan input, seems like they would make a bigger deal of the announcement.

Juraider88

Still waiting to see what submissions from the design-your-own-team contest actually made it into the game. Considering that they were allowing actual fan input, seems like they would make a bigger deal of the announcement.

Sean Conners

EA to this point has still failed on the following vital features for CFM:
1) commish powers to reset a game
2) the ability to pick up a disconnected game at or close to the dc point
3) a decent website that can actually be used and is fully functional
4) the ability to practice more (whole team vs your back up qb, which seems like the only promised position so far) or take your franchise team into a lobby or community game to be able to play with em more
5) genuinely randomized draft classes
6) the ability to call illegal contact for downfield wr bumping (never has been programmed into the game)
7) Bring back the commish ability to put players back on teams (and reset a previous contract, which has never been available except 3rd party in the past (not currently))
8) Also, they need to fix the glitch that allows anyone to user a safety, hold R2 and be able to tell if it’s a run or pass with no effort whatsoever.

There’s more, but these come to mind immediately.

DaStrongSKRAWN

None of this is new. This just swapped out “morale” with “confidence.” EA out here tryna pull fast ones on the fans. Tad bit annoying and a very disappointing. It all comes down to the demo for me.

Randy

Just make conected franchise Deeper the more you put into it the better.That is all i play.

God

The first feature sounds kinda cool. The second one sounds like a gimmick that won’t influence the game whatsoever like hot and cold streaks. If it can influence certain players to ask to be traded when their confidence goes down then I’d be on board. Can’t wait for more news.

Sk

They need to bring back game of the week in franchise mode and show your divison standings on the main screen before playing a game. They need to get rid of the hot and cold players streak bs. Make simulated the week in franchise mode easier like in past maddens. Idk about everyone else but my madden 25 glitched hard in franchise mode. My wr wouldnt have their names underneath them when i hiked the ball. And the rb screens are super op

Benjamin Gutierrez

All I want are customizable subpackages

Mance

I really just want my drafted players to have the option of not wearing those gd long sleeve white undershirts, extremely irritating not being able to change that.

Also, I don’t understand why the injuries don’t work like they did in Madden 06 with Doubtful-Questionable – Probable. It’s the smaller, more minute details they truly make this game special as a simulation and, as often as I play, I would appreciate them greatly.